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Noteworthy Black Catholics

Noteworthy Black Catholics

Beacons of our faith

Discover the stories of Black Catholic saints, heroic examples of holiness to the world around them.

Click on each image to learn more about these men and women whose legacy lives on today.

CURRENTLY ACTIVE BISHOPS

Most Reverend Roy Edward Campbell, Jr.
Most Reverend Shelton Fabre
Most Reverend Jerome Feudjio
His Eminence, Wilton Cardinal Gregory
Most Reverend Joseph N. Perry
Most Reverend Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS

RETIRED BISHOPS

Most Reverend Gordon D. Bennett, SJ
Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Most Reverend Curtis Guillory, SVD
Most Reverend Martin D. Holley
Most Reverend John H. Ricard, SSJ
Most Reverend J. Terry Steib, SVD

DECEASED BISHOPS

Most Reverend Moses B. Anderson, SSE
Most Reverend Dominic Carmon, SVD
Most Reverend Fernand Cheri III, OFM
Most Reverend Carl Fisher, SSJ
Most Reverend Joseph Francis, SVD
Most Reverend Joseph Howze
Most Reverend James P. Lyke, OFM
Most Reverend Eugene A. Marino, SSJ
Most Reverend Emerson Moore
Most Reverend George V. Murry, SJ
Most Reverend Leonard Olivier , SVD
Most Reverend Harold Perry, SVD
Most Reverend Guy Sansaricq
Most Reverend Elliott G. Thomas

BLACK CATHOLICS ON THE CANONIZATION JOURNEY

Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman

Click the image to read about Sister Thea Bowman.

A devotional to Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman is available for $1.50 from Ligouri Publications. You can order the devotional here.

Venerable Henriette Delille

Click the image to read about Mother Henriette Delille.

A devotional to Venerable Mother Henriette Delille is available for $1.50 from Ligouri Publications. You can order the devotional here.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

Click the image to read about Pierre Toussaint.

A devotional to Venerable Pierre Toussaint is available for $1.50 from Ligouri Publications. You can order the devotional here.

Servant of God Mother Mary Lange

Click the image to read about Mother Mary Lange.

A devotional to Servant of God Mother Mary Lange is available for $1.50 from Ligouri Publications. You can order the devotional here.

Venerable Father Augustus Tolton

Click the image to read about Fr. Augustus Tolton.

A devotional to Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton is available for $1.50 from Ligouri Publications. You can order the devotional here.

Servant of God Julia Greeley

Click the image to read about Julia Greeley.

A devotional to Servant of God Julia Greeley is available for $1.50 from Ligouri Publications. You can order the devotional here.

* All the portraits in this section were created by artist Anthony VanArsdale and are the property of the NBCC, all rights reserved.

Ligouri Publications offers the set of devotionals to the Six Holy Men and Women on the Path to Sainthood for $6.99. You can order the set here.


BECOMING A SAINT

We are all called to be saints, but what is the process used by the Catholic Church to canonize Holy men and women as saints?
Read about it here.

BLACK AND AFRICAN SAINTS AND MARTYRS

St. Anthony the Great

January 17

Fr Antonio Vieira

Not canonized

St. Augustine

August 28

St Benedict the Moor

April 4

St Bessarion

June 17

Sts Felicity & Perpetua

March 7

St Josephine Bakhita

February 8

St Katherine Drexel

March 3

St Martin de Porres

November 3

St Monica

August 27

St Moses the Black

August 28

St Peter Claver

September 9

Sts Valentine & Dubatatius

November 17

St Victoria

February 12

BLACK AND AFRICAN popes

Pope Victor I

July 28

Pope Militades

December 10

Pope Gelasius

November 21

The Canonization Process In Four Steps

Servant of God

A cause is presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and it is accepted.

Venerable

After the cause is approved, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declares that the person has lived the Christian virtues heroically.

Blessed

The Congregation recognizes that the person is in Heaven. This requires that a miracle has taken place through the intercession of that person. In most cases, the miracle is a healing.

Saint

After beatification, a second miracle is needed to declare someone a saint. After this, the Pope summons all the Cardinals of the Church and the date for the Canonization Ceremony of the saint is determined.

Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary

Our Timeline

Black Catholic History

Learn more about the history of Black Catholics and influential figures by following our timeline from colonial settlements to the present day.

Discover more

Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary

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Congress XIII

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

His Eminence, Wilton Cardinal Gregory

Born December 7, 1947 in Chicago, His Eminence Wilton D. Cardinal Gregory attended St. Carthage Grammar School, where he converted to Catholicism. He attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, Niles College of Loyola University and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago on May 9, 1973. Three years after his ordination he began graduate studies at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome. There he earned his doctorate in sacred liturgy in 1980. He was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Chicago on December 13, 1983. On February 10, 1994, he was installed as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Belleville, IL. On December 9, 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Gregory as the sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He was installed on January 17, 2005. Archbishop Gregory was appointed as the seventh archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC on April 4, 2019, and was elevated to Cardinal by Pope Francis on November 28, 2020.

Most Reverend Fernand Cheri III, OFM

Bishop Cheri was appointed as the Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans, and the Titular Bishop of Membressa, on January 12, 2015 and installed March 23, 2015. He served in this capacity until his death on March 21, 2023.

Bishop Cheri was ordained to the Catholic Church on May 20, 1978 by Philip Hannan and consecrated March 23, 2015 by Gregory Michael Aymond,Wilton Daniel Gregory, and J. Terry Steib. After his ordination he received a master’s degree in theology from Xavier University of Louisiana’s Institute for Black Catholic Studies.

Born January 28, 1952 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Fernand Jr. and Gladys Cheri, Bishop Cheri attended St. John Vianney Preparatory Seminary in New Orleans. He went on to study at St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington, Louisiana and Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.

Most Reverend Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS
Fabre-Jeune Coat of Arms

Jacques Eric Fabre-Jeune C.S. (born November 13, 1955) is a Haitian-American priest of the Catholic Church who was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, in February 2022, and installed on May 13, 2022. He is the first Black and the first member of a religious community to be named to that position. He is the second Haitian-American bishop and the first to head a diocese. Since becoming a priest in 1986, he has worked in Florida and Georgia, the Dominican Republic, and briefly at a refugee camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

Bishop Fabre-Jeune’s episcopal motto reads, “Whatever You Do to the Least of My Children, You Do to Me.”

Most Reverend Shelton Fabre

Born October 25, 1963 in New Roads, Louisiana, Archbishop Fabre is the fifth of six children, and he was ordained a Priest on Saturday, August 5, 1989 by Bishop Stanley J. Ott at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge, LA. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 2006 and he was later ordained an Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans. He was appointed Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux on September 23, 2013, and he was installed Bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, in a ceremony held at the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales, Houma, LA, on October 30, 2013.  On February 8, 2022, Pope Francis named Fabre Archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky. He was installed on March 30, 2022.

Archbishop Fabre has an MA in Religious Studies from the Katholiek Universiteit te Leuven in Louvain, Belgium and a BA in Religious Studies from the Katholiek Universiteit te Leuven in Louvain, Belgium and a BA in History from St. Joseph Seminary in St. Benedict, LA.

Illustration courtesy of the ​Claverite Magazine

Most Reverend Joseph N. Perry

Bishop Joseph Perry is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago. He grew up in an observant Catholic home in Chicago and was one of six children. He attended various Catholic schools in Chicago and from a young age “had an affinity to the Church.”

At 15, he entered the high school seminary and was eventually ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1975, and was appointed a bishop in 1998.

​He holds a J.C.L. from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., a M.Div. from St. Francis de Sales Major Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.A. in Theology from St. Joseph College, as well as a minor in Education.

The English translation of the script on Bishop Perry’s coat of arms is, “Send me O Lord!”

Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.

Bishop Edward K. Braxton, Bishop of Belleville, Illinois, was born on June 28, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois. John Cardinal Cody, Archbishop of Chicago ordained him to the priesthood on May 13, 1970. He earned his M.A. and S.T.L from The University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein. His Ph. D. and S.T.D are from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Justin Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop of St. Louis, ordained him to the episcopacy on May 17, 1995. After five years as Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis, he was appointed second Bishop of Lake Charles, Louisiana in 2000. Five years later, he was installed as eight Bishop of Belleville on June 22, 2005, the Feast of St. Thomas More. Bishop Braxton is a widely published theologian and a foremost commentator on the racial divide in the United States and in the Catholic Church. Bishop Braxton’s resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on April 3, 2020.

The English translation of the Latin script on Bishop Braxton’s Coat of Arms is, “Stay with us, Lord.”

Most Reverend Curtis Guillory, SVD

Curtis John Guillory became the fifth bishop of the Beaumont Diocese on July 28, 2000, and the first to be a member of a religious community, the Society of the Divine Word. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Galveston-Houston Diocese on December 29, 1987, and ordained on February 19, 1988.

Bishop Guillory was born on September 1, 1943, in Mallet, Louisiana. Young Curtis entered the Society of Divine Word’s St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He earned a BA from the Divine Word College at Epworth, Iowa, in 1968, and later earned a master’s of divinity degree at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.His ordination took place on December 16, 1972, by Bishop Carlos Lewis, a member of the Divine Word Community, of Panama. Father Guillory later earned a master’s degree in Christian spirituality from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

The English translation of the Latin script on Bishop Guillory’s Coat of Arms is, “All things work together for those who love God.”

Most Reverend Jerome Feudjio

Born September 30, 1955 in Fonakeukeu, Cameroon, Bishop Feudjio is the sixth Bishop of St. Thomas. He was ordained a Priest on September 29, 1990 by Bishop Sean Patrick O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap, then Bishop of St. Thomas. He was appointed Bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands by Pope Francis on March 2, 2021, and was consecrated on April 17, 2021. The English translation of the Latin script on Bishop Feudjio’s Coat of Arms is, “Christ Lives in Me.”

Most Reverend Roy Edward Campbell, Jr.

Born on November 19, 1947, Bishop Campbell has been a life-long member of the Archdiocese of Washington. He was baptized at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Indian Head, MD, received his First Holy Communion in 1956 at Saint Cyprian Church in Southeast Washington and the Sacrament of Confirmation in 1959 at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart Church in Northwest Washington. In 1999, Campbell entered the archdiocese’s permanent diaconate program. In January 2003, Campbell entered Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary to begin his priestly formation, and completed his seminary studies at in 2007, graduating with a Master of Divinity degree. He was ordained into the priesthood on May 26, 2007 by Cardinal Donald Wuerl. He was appointed pastor of Assumption Catholic Church in southeast Washington in 2008, and in 2010 was appointed to his current assignment, as pastor of Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Largo. In addition to being the pastor of Saint Joseph’s, he has served as dean of Middle Prince George’s County, and is a member of the Clergy Personnel Board, Vocations Board and College of Consultors. Cardinal Donald Wuerl ordained Bishop Roy Edward Campbell Jr. as a new auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington on April 21, 2017 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Bishop Campbell was installed as president of the National Black Catholic Congress on April 1, 2019.

Most Reverend Elliott G. Thomas

Thomas attended Charlotte Amalie High School, in St. Thomas, where he graduated in 1945. In 1950, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree and qualified as a registered pharmacist, returning to the Virgin Islands to be a pharmacist in St. Thomas. In 1957, Thomas converted to Catholicism. He began his studies for the priesthood in 1982 at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1986, and was appointed Episcopal Vicar for the diocese and Pastor of Holy Family Church. Thomas was named as the Third Bishop of the Virgin Islands on October 30, 1993, and served until June 1999. Bishop Howze passed away on February 28, 2019 at 92 years of age.

Most Reverend Guy Sansaricq

Born in Jeremie, Haiti, Oct. 6, 1934, into a devout Catholic family, Guy A. Sansaricq decided at age 13 that he wanted to become a priest. He attended the seminary of the Jeremie Diocese for five years, after which he received a scholarship to St. Paul’s Pontifical Seminary in Ottawa, Canada, where he studied philosophy and theology for seven years. In 1960 he was ordained a priest in the cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

​After ordination he was assigned by his bishop to serve as chaplain for Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas. When he completed his work in the Bahamas, he was given a scholarship to study social sciences at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he received a master’s degree in 1971. In that same year, he was accepted to serve in the Diocese of Brooklyn and was appointed diocesan coordinator of the Haitian Apostolate, and in 1987 he was selected to head the National Haitian Apostolate. Bishop Sansaricq died on August 21, 2021.

Most Reverend Harold Perry, SVD

Most Reverend Harold Perry born on October 9th, 1916 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He was ordained on January 6th, 1944, and was the 26th African American to become a Catholic priest. On September 29, 1965, Perry was appointed titular bishop of Mons in Mauretania and auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on January 6, 1966, from Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi. For many years he also served as national chaplain of the Knights of Peter Claver. He left this world on July 17th, 1991.

Most Reverend Leonard Olivier , SVD

Most Reverend Leonard Olivier was born on October 12, 1923 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He was ordained a priest for the Society of the Divine Word in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. On November 7, 1988, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington by Pope John Paul II. He was consecrated bishop on December 20, 1988. Olivier was a Fourth Degree Knight of St. Peter Claver, a Fourth Degree Knight of St. John and Columbus as well as a board member of the National Black Catholic Congress. He retired in 2004. He passed away on November 19th, 2014.

Most Reverend George V. Murry, SJ

Murry was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1948. He attended St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia, PA, St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland where he received a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1972. That same year he entered the Society of Jesus. He earned a Masters of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley in 1979 and a doctorate in American Cultural History from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1994.

On January 24, 1995, Pope John Paul II appointed him titular Bishop of Fuerteventura and Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago where he was ordained to the episcopacy on March 20, 1995. On May 5, 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Bishop Murry succeeded to the see on June 30, 1999. Murry passed away on June 5, 2020.

Most Reverend Emerson Moore

Most Reverend Emerson Moore was born on May 16th, 1938 in the Harlem section of New York City, and was raised as a Baptist. Raised in the Bronx, he attended Cardinal Hayes High School, and converted to Catholicism at age 15. On May 30, 1964, Moore was ordained a priest by Cardinal Francis Spellman at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was consecrated on September 8th, 1983 by Cardinal Terence Cooke. Moore founded the Office for Black Ministry in the Archdiocese of New York, and He was was
appointed Auxiliary Bishop of New York in 1982. He passed away on September 14th, 1995.

Most Reverend Eugene A. Marino, SSJ

Josephite Father Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1934, of Puerto-Rican and African American parentage. He was appointed titular bishop of Walla-Walla and auxiliary bishop of Washington on July 11, 1974. He was later appointed Archbishop of Atlanta March 10, 1988 and became the first African American archbishop in the United States of America. He resigned the archbishopric July 10, 1990 and became chaplain at the Sisters of Mercy in Alma, Michgan until 1995.and died November 12, 2000.

Most Reverend James P. Lyke, OFM

James Lyke became archbishop in 1991, and a native of Chicago, he was the spiritual leader of 185,000 Catholics in north Georgia. He entered the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in St. Louis in 1959, and was ordained as a priest in 1966. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cleveland in 1970 and was ordained a bishop in 1979. Lyke was installed as archbishop in June, 1991. Bishop Lyke passed away on December 27, 1992.

Most Reverend Joseph Howze

Most Reverent Joseph Howze converted to Catholicism at age twenty-four. After expressing an interest in the Priesthood, Howze was accepted to study at Christ the King Seminary at St. Bonaventure University in New York and was ordained for the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 7, 1959.
On November 8, 1972 Howze was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi by Pope Paul VI. When the Diocese of Biloxi was created in 1977, Howze was appointed as its first bishop.
​He was the first black bishop in the 20th century to head a diocese in the United States. He retired June 6, 2001, and passed from this life on January 9, 2019 at 95 years of age.

Most Reverend Joseph Francis,
SVD

Bishop Francis was born on Sept. 30, 1923, in Lafayette, La. He attended St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis and St. Mary’s Seminary in Techny, Ill. He was ordained in Bay St. Louis on Oct. 7, 1950. He later earned a master’s degree at Catholic University in Washington. His appointment as Auxiliary Bishop to Archbishop Peter L. Gerety of Newark was announced by Pope Paul VI in 1976. He left this world on Monday, September 1, 1997

Most Reverend Carl Fisher, SSJ

Born in 1945 in Pascagoula, MS, Bishop Fisher was ordained on June 2, 1973. He became pastor of the 194-year-old St. Francis Xavier Parish in Baltimore in 1982, the oldest black parish in the nation.
As auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, he supervised 70 parishes, 53 elementary schools and 10 high schools in the archdiocese’s San Pedro Pastoral Region. Bishop Fisher left this world on September 2, 1993.

Most Reverend Dominic Carmon, SVD

Born December 13th, 1930 in Opelousas, Louisiana, Carmon joined the Society of the Divine Word in 1946, and was ordained to the priesthood on February 2, 1960. He served as a missionary to Papua New Guinea from 1961 to 1968. On December 16, 1992, Carmon was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans and Titular Bishop of Rusicade by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on February 11, 1993 from Archbishop Francis Schulte. Bishop Carmon passed into eternal life on Sunday, November 11, 2018 at the age of 87.

Most Reverend Moses B. Anderson, SSE

Born in Selma, AL, in 1928, he attended Saint Micael’s College in Winooski, Vermont, and graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in philosophy. He then went to Saint Edmund’s Seminary and was ordained an Edmundite priest in 1958. He earned an M.S. in Sociology from St. Michael’s College and an M.A. in Theology from Xavier University. During his 25-year anniversary as a priest, he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Detroit, a post he held for 20 years before retiring from active ministry in 2003. Bishop Anderson was called home on Jan. 1, 2013.

Most Reverend J. Terry Steib, SVD

Bishop J. Terry Steib was born in Vacherie, Louisiana. He was inspired to become a priest by his doctors, ministers and community leaders. He attended St. Augustine Divine Word Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi from 1953 to 1957, and graduated from Divine Word Seminary in 1961. He completed his philosophical studies also at Divine Word Seminary in Techny, Illinois in 1963, and earned a theological degree from Divine Word Seminary in Bay St. Louis in 1967.

Steib was ordained a priest on January 6, 1967. On December 6, 1983, Steib was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis and Titular Bishop of Fallaba by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on February 10, 1984. He was named to succeed Daniel M. Buechlein as the fourth Bishop of Memphis on March 24, 1993, and installed on May 5, 1993.
​Pope Francis accepted his resignation on August 23, 2016.

Most Reverend John H. Ricard, SSJ

Bishop John H. Ricard, S.S.J., was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee on March 13, 1997 by Pope John Paul II. Bishop Ricard moved from the Archdiocese of Baltimore where he served as Auxiliary Bishop. He is the former Chair of Catholic Relief Services where he served from 1995 to 2002.Bishop Ricard was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and upon completion of high school entered the Josephite College Seminary in Newburgh, New York. He completed his theological training at St. Joseph Seminary in Washington, D.C., and was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1968. Since ordination, Bishop Ricard continued his studies, receiving a Masters Degree from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1970 and a Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1984. Bishop Ricard served as President of the National Black Catholic Congress from its inception until April 2019. In June 2019, he was elected Superior General of the Society of St. Joseph (the Josephites).

Most Reverend Martin D. Holley

Born on December 31, 1954 in Pensacola, Florida, Holley attended Alabama State University, where he received a bachelor of science degree in 1977. He studied theology at the Catholic University of America and completed his seminary studies at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, FL, where he earned a master of divinity degree in 1987. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee on May 8, 1987.

Bishop Holley was appointed auxiliary bishop of Washington on May 18, 2004, and was ordained a bishop on July 2, 2004. He served as vicar general for the Archdiocese of Washington and is a member of the archdiocesan College of Consultors, Presbyteral
​Council, Seminarian Review Board, Administrative Board, and chairman of the College of Deans. Installed Bishop of Memphis in Tennessee on October 19, 2016, he was given the title Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee in October, 2018.

Most Reverend Gordon D. Bennett, SJ

Born in Denver, Colorado on October 21, 1946, Fr. Bennett pronounced his first vows as a Jesuit on September 8, 1966, and in 1983, on February 2, pronounced his final vows.

From 1996 through 1998, Fr. Bennett was the President of Loyola High School in Los Angeles. It was during this time that he was appointed Titular Bishop of Nesqually and Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore. He was ordained Bishop at the Cathedral of Mary Queen in Baltimore on March 3, 1998.

Bishop Bennett was named head of the Diocese of Mandeville, Jamaica by the Holy Father on July 6, 2004 but after two years he returned to California for health reasons. He assumed his current position as the St. Peter Faber, S.J., Fellow in Ignatian Spirituality and Pastoral Ministry at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, in August 2008.

St Anthony the Great

January 17

St. Anthony is called the Patriarch of Monks. He was born at Aama near Thebes in Egypt. His parents were rich Christians. Shortly after inheriting his parents’ fortune, he sold it all and gave the proceeds to the poor, sent his sister to a nunnery, and retired to an old ruin of a tomb. He ate only every three or four days and spent his time at manual labor and prayer.

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Fr Antonio Vieira

Not canonized

Antonio Vieria was an African born in Portugal. When he was fifteen years old, he became a Jesuit novice and later a professor of rhetoric and dogmatic theology. He went to Brazil where he worked to abolish discrimination against Jewish merchants, abolish slavery, and alleviate conditions among the poor. Fr. Antonio Vieria has not been canonized.

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St Augustine

August 28

St. Augustine is best known as a convert and the author of Confessions. His thousands of letters, sermons and tracts, combined with 232 books, instructed the Early Church and remain relevant for the Church today. It is said that Christian scholars through the ages owe much to St. Augustine, and the full impact of his psychology and his embryonic theology will be felt in years to come. Augustine lived an austere life, performing great acts of mortification and penance. He wrote, “I pray to God, weeping almost daily.”

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St Benedict the Moor

April 4

St. Benedict the Moor was born in Sicily in 1526. He was the son of African slave parents, but he was freed at an early age. When he was about twenty-one he was insulted because of his color, but his patient and dignified bearing caused a group of Franciscan hermits who witnessed the incident to invite him to join their group. Eventually he became their leader. In 1564 he joined the Franciscan friary in Palermo and worked in the kitchen until 1578, when he was chosen superior of the group. He was known for his power to read people’s minds and received the nickname “the Holy Moor.”

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St Bessarion

June 17

Bessarion was a native of Egypt. Seeking perfection, he went into the wilderness where he was a disciple first of St. Antony and then of St. Macarius. Rather than live under a roof he wandered about like a bird, observing silence and subduing his flesh by mighty fasting. His neighborly charity led him to a height of perfection that was manifested by miracles: he made saltwater fresh, brought rain during drought several times, walked on the Nile, and overcame demons. Like so many other desert fathers, St. Bessarion lived to a great age. His admirers compared him to Moses, Joshua, Elias, and John the Baptist. St. Bessarion is named in the Roman Martyrology on June 17, but his usual date in the East is June 6.

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Sts Felicity & Perpetua

March 7

Both women were persecuted for practicing Christianity at Carthage. Perpetua is recorded for having several visions that depicted her death. At her death, she called out to the crowds: “Stand fast in the Faith and love one another. Do not let out suffering be a stumbling block to you…” Felicity was Perpetua’s slave. They died together, and they are the patron saints of mothers, expectant mothers, ranchers, and butchers.

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St Josephine Bakhita

February 8

St. Josephine Bakhita was a slave for many years, but her spirit was always free and eventually that spirit prevailed. Born in the Darfur region of southern Sudan, Josephine was kidnapped at the age of seven, sold into slavery, and given the name Bakhita, which means “fortunate.” She was resold several times, finally in 1883 to Callisto Legnani, Italian consul in Khartoum, Sudan. Two years later he took Josephine to Italy and gave her to his friend Augusto Michieli. Bakhita became the babysitter to Mimmina Michieli, whom she accompanied to Venice’s Institute of the Catechumens, run by the Canossian Sisters. Josephine felt drawn to the Catholic Church. She was baptized and confirmed in 1890, taking the name Josephine. When the Michielis returned from Africa and wanted to take Mimmina and Josephine back with them, the future saint refused to go. During the ensuing court case, the Canossian Sisters and the patriarch of Venice intervened on Josephine’s behalf. The judge concluded that since slavery was illegal in Italy, she had actually been free since 1885. Josephine entered the Institute of St. Magdalene of Canossa in 1893 and made her profession three years later.

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St Katherine Drexel

March 3

Although she was not of African descent, St. Katharine Drexel dedicated her life to the defense and promotion of Native and African Americans. Her father, Francis Anthony Drexel, shared ownership of an international banking empire, and Katherine grew up as part of the social and economic elite of America. Katharine’s concern for the “colored people” paralleled her concern for the Indians. She purchased a sixteen hundred acre tract on the James River near Richmond, Virginia, where she established St. Emma’s Industrial and Agricultural Institute for young black men. On a piece of the land adjoining it, she had a school built for black girls. She also founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Katharine’s crowning achievement was the Building of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first U.S. Catholic institution of higher education for African Americans. Eventually, the constant demand of her work caught up with her; in 1935, she suffered a heart attack and afterward rarely left the Motherhouse in Philadelphia. Along with a life of contemplation, she continued to fight for civil rights. She funded some of the NAACP’s investigations of the exploitation of black workers, and organized letter-writing campaigns to President Franklin Roosevelt.

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St Martin de Porres

November 3

Martin de Porres become the first Black American saint when he was canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 16, 1962. Martin was born in 1579, in Lima, Peru as the illegitimate son of Don Juan de Porres of Burgos a Spanish nobleman, and Ana Velasquez, a young freed Negro slave girl. From early childhood Martin showed great piety, a deep love for all God’s creatures, and a passionate devotion to Our Lady. At the age of 11 he took a job as a servant in the Dominican priory and performed his work with such devotion that he was called “the saint of the broom.” Martin was placed in charge of the Dominicans’ infirmary where he became known for his tender care of the sick and for his spectacular cures. In recognition of his fame and his deep devotion, his superiors dropped the stipulation that “no black person may be received to the holy habit or profession of our order” and so Martin was vested in the full habit and took solemn vows as a Dominican brother. He established an orphanage and a children’s hospital for the poor children of the slums. He set up a shelter for the stray cats and dogs and nursed them back to health. Many miraculous cures, including the raising of the dead, were attributed to him.

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St Monica

August 27

St. Monica is a saint with whom most black women can readily and easily identify. St. Monica was born in Tegaste in northern Africa in about 331. She was a devout Christian and an obedient disciple of St. Ambrose. Through her patience, gentleness, and prayers, she converted her pagan husband. She gave her son, St. Augustine, religious training during his boyhood, only to feel the disappointment of seeing him scorn all religion and live a life of disrepute as he grew older. But before her death, Monica had the great joy of knowing that Augustine had returned to God and was using all his energies to build Christ’s Church. Her youngest daughter also became a nun.

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Pope Victor I

July 28

Of Roman African descent, Pope Victor reigned from 189-199. According to an anonymous writer quoted by Eusebius, Victor excommunicated Theodotus of Byzantium for teaching that Christ was a mere man. However, he is best known for his role in the “Quartodeciman controversy,” which decided whether Easter could be celebrated on another day besides Sunday. The verdict: “on the Lord’s Day only the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord from the dead was accomplished, and that on that day only we keep the close of the paschal fast.” Despite this disapproval, the general feeling was that this divergent tradition was not sufficient grounds for excommunication.

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St Peter Claver

September 9

St. Peter Claver is the patron saint of slaves and ministry to African Americans because of his devotion and care of enslaved people. He was a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary who, during 40 years of ministry in Columbia, personally baptized around 300,000 people. He is also a patron saint for seafarers. He is considered a heroic example of the Christian praxis of love and of the exercise of human rights.

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St Victoria

February 12

St. Victoria died for her faith at Abitene in Proconsular, Africa. Having been arrested for assisting at Mass, she confessed her faith before a judge in 304. She was stretched on the rack and later died in prison.

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Pope Militades

December 10

A native of Africa, Miltiades was elected pope in 311 to fill the vacancy left by the banishment of Pope Eusebius in 309 or 310. The year 311 saw an end to the persecution of Christians through an edict given by Emperors Galerius, Licinius, and Constantine. The Church was able to regain possession of all buildings and items confiscated during the persecution, and Miltiades saw the defeat of Maxentius, emperor of Rome, by Constantine through divine intercession and the resulting elevation of Constantine, a convert to Christianity, to emperor. Through ties to Constantine, Miltiades acquired the Lateran Palace as a residence and the seat for the administration of the Roman Church. Miltiades is credited with issuing a decree against fasting on Sundays or Thursdays. He was pope from July 311 until his death in 314.

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Pope Gelasius

November 21

Gelasius was of African origin, born in Rome. As pope, Gelasius dealt firmly with threats to the Church of Rome from schismatics and was unyielding against attempts to compromise the papacy and the Church. He wrote: “There are two powers by which chiefly this world is ruled: the sacred authority of the priesthood and the authority of kings. And of these the authority of the priests is so much the weightier, as they must render before the tribunal of God an account even for the kings of men.”

Gelasius was a prolific writer and composed hymns, collects, a Missal, and many letters. He held a spirit of prayer, penance and study, and was a true father to the poor. He was Pope from 492 to 496.

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St. Moses the Black

August 28

Saint Moses, the Black, was a desert monk, born around 330. He was an Ethiopian of great physical strength and unruly character. Moses was a big man and his enormous strength was well known. He belonged to a band of professional thieves and robbers in Egypt. Fearing eventual death from his Ethiopian master, or other criminals, Moses ran away into the Scete Desert. No regular people were there, only poor hermits with nothing worth stealing. The hermits converted Black Moses to Jesus; yet his former bad ways held on to him. In order to fight harder for Jesus, Moses moved further into the desert. He was chosen for priesthood, and at his ordination the bishop remarked to him, “Now the black man is made white”. Moses replied, “Only outside, for God knows I am all black within.”

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Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton

Augustus was born in the U.S. to two slaves, Peter Paul Tolton and his wife Martha Jane, on April 1, 1854. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Peter Paul hoped to gain freedom for his family and escaped to the North where he served in the Union Army and was one of the 180,000 blacks who were killed in the war. His widow decided that she would see her husband’s quest for freedom realized in his children. After she managed to cross the Mississippi River she made her way to Illinois and settled in the small town of Quincy. When her children attempted to attend Catholic school to be educated by the Sisters of Notre Dame, parents of the other school children were not happy. So the Sisters of Notre Dame decided to tutor the Tolton children privately.

As Augustus grew older he began to display an interest in the priesthood. His parish priests, Fathers McGuirr and Richardt, encouraged the young man in this aspiration and tried to enroll in several dicoesan seminaries, but without success. They then decided to begin Augustus’ education in theology themselves. Finally in 1878, the Franciscan College in Quincy accepted Augustus, and two years later he was enrolled at the college of the Propaganda Fidei in Rome.

After completing his courses in Rome, Augustus Tolton was ordained on April 24, 1886. His first assignment was Saint Joseph parish in his hometown of Quincy, where he served for two years and gained enormous respect from many of the German and Irish parishioners. He was later given a parish on the south side of the city, Saint Augustine, which later became Saint Monica. This would be Fr. Tolton’s parish for life, and the center from which he ministered to all the Black Catholics of Chicago. He addressed the First Catholic Colored Congress in Washington DC in 1889.

The cause for Fr. Tolton’s canonization was begun in 2010. In 2015, the cause received affirmation of the juridical validity of the Archdiocesan inquiry into his life and virtues by the Congregation for Causes of Saints, and so Fr. Tolton received the distinction of Servant of God.

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Servant of God Julia Greeley

Denver’s Angel of Charity was born into slavery at Hannibal, Missouri, between 1833 and 1848. As a young child, Julia’s right eye was destroyed by a cruel slavemaster’s whip.

Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Julia subsequently earned her keep by serving white families in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico—though mostly in the Denver area. She spent whatever she could spare to assist poor families in her neighborhood. When her own resources were inadequate, she begged for food, fuel, and clothing for the needy. To avoid embarrassing the people she helped, Julia did most of her charitable work under cover of night through dark alleys.

Julia entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver in 1880. The Jesuits who ran the parish considered her the most enthusiastic promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus they had ever seen. Every month she went on foot to every fire station in Denver and delivered literature of the Sacred Heart League to the firemen, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Julia had a rich devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin. She was a daily communicant and continued her prayers while working and moving about. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active in it until her death in 1918.

To the present day, many people have asked that her cause be opened for canonization. This request was finally granted in the Fall of 2016. As part of the Cause for Canonization, Julia’s mortal remains were transferred to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on ​June 7, 2017.

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Sts Valentine & Dubatatius

November 17

Sts. Valentine & Dubatatius were executed for their faith at Carthage.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

Pierre was born in 1766 modern-day Haiti as a slave, but died in New York City as a free man and a well-known Catholic.

Pierre Bérard, Toussaint’s master, allowed him to be taught how to read and write by his grandmother. In his early 20s, Toussaint, his younger sister, his aunt, and two other house slaves accompanied their master’s son to New York City because of political unrest at home. Apprenticed to a local hairdresser, Pierre learned the trade quickly and eventually worked in the homes of rich women in New York City.

When his master died, Toussaint supported his master’s widow and the other slaves himself, and was freed shortly before the widow’s death in 1807. Four years later, he married Marie Rose Juliette, whose freedom he had purchased. They later adopted Euphémie, his orphaned niece. Both preceded him in death.

Even during his lifetime, Toussaint enjoyed the reputation of an exceptionally devout and charitable person within the Catholc community. Every day he attended the 6:00 a.m. Mass in St. Peter’s Church, where he was a pewholder for many years. He also raised funds to build the original St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Vincent de Paul Church.​

Toussaint donated to various charities, generously assisting blacks and whites in need. He and his wife opened their home to orphans and educated them. The couple also nursed abandoned people who were suffering from yellow fever. Perhaps his favorite charity was St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum, an institution that he often visited. Urged to retire and enjoy the wealth he had accumulated, Toussaint responded, “I have enough for myself, but if I stop working I have not enough for others.”

In recognition of Pierre Toussaint’s virtuous life, the late Cardinal Terence Cooke introduced Pierre’s cause for canonization at the Vatican in 1968. In December 1989, the late Cardinal O’Connor had the remains of Pierre Toussaint transferred from Lower Manhattan to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan where he is currently buried as the only lay person alongside the former cardinal archbishops of New York City. On December 17, 1997, he was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II.

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Servant of God Mother Mary Lange

Elizabeth Lange was born around 1794 in Santiago de Cuba, where she lived in a primarily French-speaking community. She received an excellent education and in the early 1800s she left Cuba and settled in the United States in Baltimore. Elizabeth was a courageous, loving, and deeply spiritual woman. There was no free public education for African American children in Maryland until 1868, so she responded to that need by opening a school for the children in her home in the Fells Point area of the city.

Providence intervened through the person of Reverend James Hector Joubert, SS, who was encouraged by James Whitfield, Archbishop of Baltimore to present Elizabeth Lange with the idea to found a religious congregation for the education of African American girls. Father Joubert would provide direction, solicit financial assistance, and encourage other “women of colour” to become members of this, the first congregation of African American women religious in the history of the Catholic Church. Elizabeth joyfully accepted Father Joubert’s idea. On July 2, 1829 Elizabeth and three other women professed their vows and became the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Elizabeth, the foundress and first superior general, took the religious name Mary.

William Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, opened a formal investigation into Mother Lange’s life and works of charity in 1991. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine for the Causes of Saints approved the cause of her sainthood in 2004, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore celebrated a canonical celebration at the transfer and blessing of Mother Lange’s remains. The faithful venerated the relics before they were sealed in a reliquary and sarcophagus in the chapel’s oratory.

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Venerable Henriette Delille

Henriette Delille was born in 1812 in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a free woman of color. When she was 24, she experienced a religious conversion and proclaimed: “I believe in God. I hope in God. I love. I want to live and die for God.”

Henriette eventually founded the Society of the Holy Family, responding to the need of treatment for the enslaved, elderly and sick, and care and education for the poor.

Henriette received tribute for her life’s work in these words from her obituary: “[Henriette] devoted herself untiringly for many years, without reserve, to the religious instruction of the people of New Orleans, principally of slaves…” The last line of her obituary reads: “…for the love of Jesus Christ she had become the humble and devout servant of the slaves.”

Archbishop Philip M. Hannan began the canonization process for Henriette DeLille in 1988. A special commission in Rome gave approval in 1988 after a review process. As of this time, an alleged miracle attributed to Henriette is being tried in a Catholic Tribunal, and the decree of judicial validity was issued in the investigation of her life, virtues, and reputation of sanctity. Henriette was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

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Servant of God
Sister Thea Bowman

A self-proclaimed “old folks child,” Thea Bowman was born Bertha Elizabeth Bowman in 1937, the daughter of a doctor and a teacher. She was raised in Canton, Mississippi. As a child she converted to Catholicism through the influence of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, who taught her and nurtured her faith.

Growing up, Thea listened and learned from the wit and wisdom of family members and those in the community. Ever precocious, she would ask questions and seek new insights on how her elders lived, thrived and survived. From them she learned survival skills and coping mechanisms. She was exposed to the richness of the African-American culture: its history and stories, music and songs, customs and rituals, prayers and symbols.

Thea was cognizant that God was indeed the God of the poor and oppressed. Her community instructed her, “If you get, give—if you learn, teach.” She developed a deep and abiding love and faith in a God who would make “a way out of no way!”

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